Rob Ford’s first formal campaign ad told a feel-good story about his devotion to “customer service.” It also breached the privacy of his “customers.” While possibly violating election rules.

The ad, released Friday, revealed the phone numbers of more than 20 residents without their permission. It includes scenes filmed in his city hall office, an apparent violation of city policy. And it features a highly dubious claim about his renowned house calls.

The video begins with Ford expounding on his populist “customer is always right” mantra while sitting in the office. It later shows him making two calls from his office desk.

The city’s official campaign policy seems clear: government facilities, including city hall offices, cannot be used for “any election-related purposes.” But Ford campaign spokesman Jeff Silverstein argued that filming an ad at city hall does not violate the policy.

“That’s where he happens to do these calls from, and that’s where he does his work,” Silverstein said. “So we don’t feel that it’s an issue.”

Mayoral candidate Karen Stintz disagreed. And at least one resident has already complained to the city’s integrity commissioner.

“It’s not within the rules. But Mayor Ford has been playing by his own rules for the last four years,” Stintz said at a playground ceremony Ford attended in her ward.

The original version of the ad showed Ford sitting in a car with a handwritten list of residents’ phone numbers. More than 20 numbers were visible when the video was paused.

After the media noted the privacy breach, Ford’s team edited the ad to obscure the numbers. Silverstein said the lapse was “inadvertent.”

One of the numbers belongs to Bela Beeson-Notto, a 15-year-old who said he called Ford months ago on a whim.

“I didn’t consent to my phone number being shown, unless me calling him first counts. So: that, and I’m a minor,” Beeson-Notto said.

Other residents whose numbers could be seen took no issue with the ad.

“That guy’s a hard-working guy. The most hard-working mayor here in Canada. In the world!” said Arden Dottin, a public housing resident who said he called Ford about problems in his building. “The world, and Canada, runs from Monday to Friday, 8-to-4 or 9-to-5. Rob Ford’s working 25 hours a day!”

Ford is well-known for his willingness to spend time at the homes of people who call about minor issues. In the ad, though, he claims that he has made “hundreds of thousands of house visits.”

To make 200,000 house visits, he would have had to average 38 house visits a day over his 14 years in office. To make 300,000 visits, he would have had to average 57 a day.

The video includes shots of Ford visiting tenants in public housing. It seeks to burnish his appeal to low-income voters who feel neglected by traditional politicians.

“Very few mayors that I know actually call their constituents back,” Ford told the camera.

Ford’s critics say he uses his one-on-one work to obscure his poor record on improving the customer service of the government itself.

In 2009, he tried to eliminate all funding for the 311 help line. In a rare visit to council’s government management committee last year, he cast the deciding vote against a motion that sought to reduce the time people spend on hold when they call the city about tax assessments.

Ford and campaign manager Doug Ford cast the only votes against a motion to ask senior governments for money for Toronto Community Housing repairs. Rivals contend that his TCHC door-knocking is less important than his refusal to think about how to enhance the system as a whole.

“It’s one thing to walk the halls at TCHC; it’s another thing to fix TCHC. Mayor Ford is very good at returning calls, he’s not very good at fixing things,” Stintz said.

With files from Jonathan Forani

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